Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-10-03
while some would hold their reveries

while some would hold their reveries
for inspirations, others not able to
recognize the majesty of religion torn
asunder by SO many sects would seek
fatal repose and complete indepen-
dence in indifference to all religion or
in Atheism.
But an immense change is taking
place in the Protestant mind. There
was time when Protestants seemed
to know nothing of their religion, but
| its protests and denials from which
they took their name. They must not
believe in the Pope or in the real pres
ence; they must not venerate the Vir-
gin or reverence the sign of the Cross.
1t is otherwise now; that large mass
of Catholic truth, which survives in
their sects, now occupies the minds OF
those who do not lean to infidelity.
We know that truth begets truth, and
that the whole Catholic dogma is to
be linked together; that when one
part of it is clearly apprehended, it
necessitates for the reasoning mind
belief in the rest.
No one can believe as he ought in
in the incarnation of Christ and not
honor his Blessed Mother. No one
can believe as he ought and not feel a
certain reverence for the Cross, the
symbol of redemption. We see this
mental process gradually going for
ward and leading many soul to the
Catholic church. In England we have
already witnessed in the present CEN
tury, the most extraordinary phenom-
ena that the religious life presents, a
spontaneous growth of Catholic faith
in the midst Of an heretical commun-
ion.
We have seen men who held no in
tercourse with Catholics and who
openly expressed their hatred of the
Catholic Church as they understood it,
gradually grow by study and thought
and prayer to the full measure of Cath
olic truth. Some day, when in their
walk of life, the embodied form of the
Church appeared before them; they
found the conclusions of their investi-
cations coincided with Catholic doc
trine, and to their great amazement,
that they were Catholics.
Like those who in childhood were torn
from mothers arms, but whose
dream of life was longing desire to
see her face again they recognized
when they saw her the true Mother
OF their souls, and rushed to her en-
brace. Some years ago this move
ment had an imposing, intellectual
form, when with the silent unruffled
grandeur of an ocean wave, it swelled
up from the depths, and slowly ad-
vancing, bore on its crest, the noblest
minds and truest hearts, that ever
bowed before the Divine Authority
of the Catholic Church. Such
men as Newman, Manning, Faber,
Wilberforce, Ward, Marquis of Butte,
Marquis of Ripon, and host of
learned eclesiastics and laymen, who
followed those great leaders. Now the
the movement is more popular. We
see many zealously striving to restore
the outward forms of the Catholic
Church, forms essentially connected
with her doctrines, and which for the
multitude used to be the chief distin-
gushing works of separation; while
at the same time literature, ar
chitecture and archaeology are
making their own converts and multi
plying the paths that lead to unity of
faith in the one fold, under the one
shepherd. Let us pray that this good
work may 60 on; that the dissentions
of the Christian sects shall be no
more a scandal and an obstacle to the
conversion of the pagan and infidel,
that they may be no longer tossed
about by every kind of doctrine, but
that all may meet in the unity of faith
and in the knowledge Of the Son Of
God unto perfect man, unto the
measure of the age Of the fulness of
Christ. Eph. iv, 13. IA.